Passengers whose flights were cancelled, wait at the departure terminal of Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut.Hassan Ammar/The Associated Press
Ottawa is organizing charter flights and booking hundreds more seats on commercial airlines to help 2,000 Canadians stranded in the Middle East who have asked the federal government for help to leave the region.
At a press conference in Ottawa on Wednesday evening, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said she expects charter flights with Canadians onboard to leave the UAE in the next 72 hours.
A further 200 seats on commercial flights have been block-booked to help Canadians in Lebanon flee the country in the next three days.
On Wednesday morning, a flight left Beirut with 75 seats booked by the federal government for Canadians, most of which were filled. She said spare seats were offered by Canada to Britain and Australia in a reciprocal agreement to help each other’s citizens evacuate the war-torn region.
In Qatar, where the airspace is closed, Canadians are being bussed to neighbouring Saudi Arabia, with more land transportation being planned in the coming days.
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The Foreign Affairs Minister said that out of more than 9,000 Canadians registered in Qatar, 237 had asked for government help leaving the country.
Ms. Anand said 106,000 Canadians have so far registered with Global Affairs in the Middle East with 2,035 asking Global Affairs for assistance to leave.
She said as well as flights, Global Affairs was also organizing land transportation. But she cautioned that using roads in the region may prove more dangerous than sheltering inside.
“I understand that being in a building such as a hotel while missiles are flying overhead is terrifying,” Ms. Anand said at the press conference. “It is however often the safer option. While we have no indication of roads being targeted by Iranian missiles, when they are intercepted overhead, debris can fall on the road below.”
“Canadians should, no matter which country they are in, only travel when it is safe to do so and follow local advice.”
Travel remains disrupted by Iran war as governments scramble to bring citizens home
Global Affairs is offering regular updates to Canadians who have registered in the Middle East, including about routes to leave the region.
The announcement on Wednesday of more help, contrasted with the message from Global Affairs earlier this week that warned Canadians in the region not to “rely on the Government of Canada’s assistance for evacuations or assisted departures.”
Friends and relatives of Canadians in Iran told The Globe and Mail that though desperate to leave the country, they have been unable to read the e-mails or contact Global Affairs because communications have largely been cut off.
Ms. Anand said directly helping Canadians in Iran was difficult. Since 2012, Canada has had no embassy in the country and diplomatic relations have been suspended. Iran’s airspace is closed and there are no flights out.
She said Canada has posted consular officials at the borders in neighbouring countries, including Turkey, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan and Armenia, to help Canadians who have managed to cross obtain paperwork and help with onward transportation.
Evacuation flights from UAE begin as governments seek to extract citizens from Middle East
Ms. Anand said she had spoken to the foreign ministers of those countries to ensure that Global Affairs staff could operate there to help Canadians fleeing Iran.
Global Affairs said that a couple of dozen Canadians had arrived at border crossings with Iran so far by car and by minibus.
The federal immigration department said on Wednesday that it has introduced a set of targeted measures in response to the situation in Iran, allowing Iranians with current work permits to extend them so that they can remain in Canada longer. The special measures by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to help Iranians will expire March 31, 2027.
In the UAE, where airspace is partly open, more than 1,100 Canadians have asked the government for help to leave.
The Foreign Affairs Minister said on Wednesday afternoon that she had told her officials to enter into contracts to charter flights from there to help them.
“This charter is contingent upon receiving the necessary approvals from the government of the UAE to use their airspace, which we have already requested, and I personally am involved in these requests at a diplomatic level,” she said. “Flights will be available on a cost-recovery basis to Canadians, and the number of flights will be tailored to meet demand.”
Thousands of travellers left stranded in the Middle East as Iran war complicates routes home
In Qatar, the airspace is closed and there are currently no options to fly in or out.
Qatar Airlines is already arranging bus transportation for 200 Canadians with tickets to an airport in Saudi Arabia to fly from there. Ms. Anand said Global Affairs was also looking into providing ground transportation out of Qatar, but she warned that this “carries risk.”
In Israel, where the airspace is closed, the country’s government has been bussing Canadian citizens to Egypt, where they can arrange onward travel.
Global Affairs said it plans to send more members of its rapid-response team, trained to help in international emergencies, to the Middle East in the coming days.
Canada’s efforts to help its citizens flee the region have lagged behind those of many other Western countries.
European countries have been organizing airlifts of their citizens.
France’s President, Emmanuel Macron, said on Tuesday that two flights airlifting its nationals were en route to Paris.
Berlin was this week planning to charter two Lufthansa flights, one from Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and one from Muscat in Oman to bring home citizens, prioritizing children, pregnant women and other vulnerable people.
Meanwhile, Italy had arranged to repatriate citizens on flights to Rome and Milan.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said at Westminster on Tuesday that it has organized a charter flight to depart Oman, with the vulnerable given priority, within the coming days.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that the State Department was exploring options, including military transport flights, to move its citizens out of countries affected by the conflict.
With a report from Reuters